The storage of goods in a warehouse and the storage of goods in a shipping container can consume a significant amount of space, some of which is not utilized in the actual storage of goods. Generally, goods stored in a warehouse or other facility are placed on the platform of a pallet and stored on multi-tiered racks. The racks may accommodate stacking one or two horizontal layers behind a front pallet and stacking several vertical layers, dependent upon the rack system. To access a pallet from the racks, generally a device, such as a forklift, is used to access the desired pallet. If the desired pallet is located behind a number of other pallets, these pallets must be moved first, and stored temporarily on another part of the rack system or on the floor. The desired pallet can then be accessed and the moved pallets can be replaced in position.
If a rack system is not used, then a first layer of pallets may be stacked on the ground, with another layer of pallets stacked on the first layer of pallets. The vertical number of stacked pallets may be limited by the weight of the pallet and the nature of the goods placed on the pallet. Here, too, to access a particular pallet other pallets may need to be moved, temporarily stored in another location until the desired pallet is accessed and moved to a desired location. Then the temporarily moved pallets can be replaced in the pallet stacks. Both of the above configurations requires a forklift or other device to move and temporarily store currently unneeded pallets until the desired pallet is accessed.
Generally, rack systems and floor storage systems require a number of aisles between rows of racks or pallets such that a forklift or other device can proceed down the aisle to come into close proximity to the desired pallet and access the pallet. The aisles required for the movement of forklifts or other such devices is space that could be used for other purposes, such as additional storage.
Hence, there remains a need for the ability to maximize the amount of goods that can be stored in a given amount of space and still retain reasonable access to the goods.